inewsource sues the North County Transit District for records

Yesterday, inewsource filed a lawsuit in the San Diego County Superior Court to compel the North County Transit District to release documents inewsource considers public under the California Public Records Act.

NCTD declined to comment on the lawsuit, but justified its position in a previous email from one of its law firms. It said the documents in question are considered “personnel records” and are exempt from disclosure under a provision of state law.

inewsource is seeking the results of a leadership assessment, which the district paid UCSD Rady School of Management more than $30,000 to conduct earlier this year.

NCTD runs the county’s COASTER, BREEZE, SPRINTER and LIFT transit services, and uses San Diego county’s tax base to support its operations. For the past 13 months, inewsource has published a series of stories in an ongoing investigation detailing the district’s holes in security, misallocation of funding, questionable contracting, high employee turnover, lawsuits, audits and peer criticism.

In February, inewsource received a phone call from a source who said NCTD had recently completed a “Leadership Assessment Program” for some of its staff. inewsource verified the information through documents showing NCTD paid $31,200 to put more than a dozen of its senior managers through a one-day class at the Rady School. The school compiled a report for NCTD, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of each manager.

The source said the results of the study validated the previous inewsource reporting about NCTD’s “vacuum” of knowledge — the result of a high turnover rate among upper management and an alleged culture of intimidation inside the agency. According to multiple sources, this vacuum is to blame for much of the NCTD’s recent safety, compliance, budgetary and operational deficiencies.

On Feb. 5, 2014, inewsource filed a California Public Records Act request with NCTD for the Rady study, and a few days later, received a reply:

NCTD has used the ‘personnel exemption’ to withhold a document before. In July 2013, NCTD denied an inewsource request for the resume of its Executive Director Matthew Tucker, claiming an exemption under the same Government Code — section 6254(c). inewsource‘s lawyer got involved and NCTD released the resume.

Dear inewsource Staff,
As a daily rider of NCTD BREEZE buses to and from work, I am very interested in your investigation and I look forward to the revelations brought forth by your hard efforts. The truth must out in public matters. Thanks for making it happen. You have my support.
Bill Miller

bradracino

Thank you, Bill. It’s great to hear from readers (and commuters) like you who support our work. Look for more on the subject very soon…
-Brad

Thank you Brad for your diligent work and great investigations. I served as a Transit Systems Security Officer for two years. I’m glad you have continued your efforts to bring these circumstances to light for the public who deserves to know the truth. Thank you.